WB to continue backing cash doles to poor

MANILA — World Bank Group president Robert B. Zoellick, who was in Manila last week, has backed proposals to expand the government’s food subsidy program for the lowest-income Filipino households, saying that economic growth should benefit the poor.

Zoellick described the government’s Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) program as a prudent safety net for poor families, especially in these tough economic times.

“…in these globally uncertain and risky times, the relatively new conditional cash transfer program here in the Philippines offers a vital safety net to the most vulnerable people,” Zoellick said in a briefing last Thursday.

CCT is a program under which governments provide subsidies to poor households, subject to certain conditions.

In the case of the Philippines, the CCT program requires recipient households to send children to public schools and mothers to regularly visit public health centers.

For 2011, the Aquino administration allocated P21 billion for the CCT to cover about 2.2 million poor Filipino households.

Over the short to medium term, the administration intends to spend much more on the program to increase the coverage to at least 4 million families.

Zoellick said the Aquino administration’s policy on transparency and good governance would be vital in the efforts to expand the CCT program, as it would help ensure that the money would go where it should.

Under the CCT program in the Philippines, each household receives a P500 monthly allowance to subsidize its basic food needs plus P300 for every child that goes to school. A maximum of three children can get the allowance.   /INQUIRER